by Kate McKee

Created on: November 06, 2009

Corporate social responsibility can be described as doing business in a way that takes more factors into account than just shareholders and profits. It happens when corporations build something extra into their decision making processes: an awareness of their responsibilities to the people who work for them, to the communities in which they operate, and to the customers who buy their products. Social responsibility is also related to the environment: a socially responsible business will carefully monitor the impact its activities are having on the local and global environment, and strive to minimize this impact.

How do corporate giants Starbucks rate on the social responsibility scale, according to these criteria? A look at their website suggests that they doing quite well. Starbuck's 'Shared Planet' program outlines the company's commitments to socially responsible business practice. The program has three strands:

* Ethical Sourcing

Starbucks bought 385 million pounds of coffee in 2008. 77% of this coffee was responsibly grown and ethically traded. Starbucks have been working with Conservation International to ensure that their growers are producing in an environmentally friendly and economically sound way. Their goal is that by 2015, all of their coffee will be produced in this way. They have opened farmer support centres in Rwanda and Costa Rica, and are committed to opening one in Ethiopia. Starbucks also have a strong community involvement in these places. They support small scale, fair trade and organic farmers. They organize loan programs for producers. And they also support the local environment in their work with the African Wildlife Foundation and Earthwatch expeditions.

* Environmental Stewardship

As of today, Starbuck's cups are not recyclable, and most of their stores have no recycling facilities. They admit this on the website, and promise faithfully that by 2015, 100% of their cups will be reusable or recyclable. In the meantime, their policy is to encourage customers to use reusable commuter cups, or to order their drinks in ceramic 'for here' cups.

Starbucks say that they are committed to reducing their energy use: they have completed an energy audit and have made some changes to lighting and HVAC systems as a result of this. 20% of their electricity comes from renewable sources.

The company also acknowledges its high level of water consumption, and details the ways in which it is trying to reduce this level: they are investigating the use of high pressure spray cleaners instead of the controversial dipper wells which use a continuous stream of running water. A water usage audit was carried out this year.

* Community Involvement

In addition to its involvement in local communities in the coffee producing countries, Starbucks is committed to involving itself in the neighborhoods of their stores. They run a volunteer program which encourages its employees and customers to come together to volunteer hours of community service. Last year, over 246,000 hours were donated to local community projects. They also run V2V, a social networking site which allows volunteers from different parts of the world to connect with each other. The Starbucks Foundation contributes to a whole range of causes, from youth grants to disaster relief funds.

These are the three main areas of Starbuck's Shared Planet program. In addition to these, the company appears to be following the 'people, planet, profit' ethos of social responsibility by embedding social responsibility policies into their corporate governance structures, by advocating in the public policy arena, and by producing a detailed annual report on their ethical and environmental practices.

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